Utah's electric cooperative leaders say they can always count on Sen. Mike Lee's support, whether it's on national issues like federal permitting reform or local issues such as ensuring the flow of hydropower and reducing the risk of devastating wildfires.

“It's time for NEPA reform," he declared on X in October. “And permitting reform more broadly."

NRECA and its member co-ops have been urging Congress to modernize the federal permitting process to make it faster, more efficient and less costly for co-ops trying to build stronger systems. Nearly two-thirds of the land in Utah is managed by the federal government, making it difficult for co-ops to do even simple vegetation management without a federal permit.

“NEPA has become increasingly complex, unpredictable, and unworkable over time," NRECA CEO Jim Matheson wrote in a July letter to lawmakers.

Lee has also opposed restrictions on hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam, which provides power to electric co-ops and other customers in several Western states.

The senator has introduced the Basin Fund Restoration Act, which would require federal agencies and stakeholders to work together to balance energy production with the conservation of endangered species in the Colorado River Basin where the dam is located.

“We're grateful for that bill; that's our always-available power generation," Johnson says.

Preventing wildfires is also a crucial issue for electric co-ops in Utah, where nearly 165,000 acres had burned in 2025 as of early November. Garkane Energy Cooperative in Loa, Utah, sustained damage in July from the Monroe Canyon Fire, which fried transmission lines and caused power outages.

Lee and the other members of the Utah congressional delegation introduced legislation in early 2025 that would create a federal wildfire research institute at Utah State University to study wildfire ecology and develop innovative solutions to mitigate risks.

“Robust forest management strategies are essential to protecting Utah's nearly 22 million acres of forests from catastrophic wildfires," Lee said when he introduced the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act in February.

Johnson said the senator has also been instrumental in helping Garkane Energy Cooperative obtain a federal grant through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program to harden its system against wildfires. When the Trump administration froze those grants to assess whether they were in line with the president's priorities, Lee helped get the money released, Johnson said.

“We reached out to Sen. Lee's office, and his staff communicated with the Department of Energy and the administration," he said. “About a week later, we got confirmation that the grants were moving forward."

The senator notes that “Utah's electric co-ops empower two national monuments, five national parks and nearly 100,000 Americans in rural areas."

“I will always fight to put infrastructure and decision-making closest to the lands and people they serve, and electric cooperatives are vital for families living beyond cities and suburbs," Lee says. “I'm working to remove every needless regulation and strip of bureaucratic red tape that hinders reliable, affordable energy. A new era of American energy dominance is here."

Lee always takes the time to meet with Utah's electric co-op leaders when they come to the nation's capital for NRECA's annual Legislative Conference, Johnson said.

“At the last conference, we were moving from the House to the Senate, and we got stuck in security down where the Capitol [subway] trains are," he said. “Sen. Lee personally came over to Rayburn House Office Building and got us all through security and into the Capitol. He spent about 20 or 30 minutes with us, and I know he's busy."

The 54-year-old senator is personable and easy to talk to, Johnson said.

“He's definitely the kind of person you can sit down with and have a really deep conversation," he said. “He expresses genuine interest in the issues that are important to us. He understands we're consumer- owned electric utilities, and those members are his constituents."

Lee was elected to the Senate in 2010. In addition to being chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he serves on the Judiciary Committee, where he is chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. He is also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Budget Committee.